EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
Mississippi's Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS) is part of a national collaborative
effort among natural resource agencies, conservation organizations, corporations and private landowners
to address habitat needs of declining wildlife species. These strategies mark the first time in U.S. history
that state wildlife agencies and the broader conservation community have cooperated to design a
conservation blueprint for all wildlife species.
Since the early 1990s, the 3,000-member nationwide Teaming
with Wildlife Coalition has worked to secure funding for state
fish and wildlife agencies to take preventative actions, keeping
rare species from becoming endangered and common species
abundant. In 2001, Congress responded to this need by
creating the State Wildlife Grants (SWG) program and from
2001 - 2005, over $300 million has been allocated to state
wildlife agencies.In order to make the best use of the State Wildlife Grants
(SWG) program, Congress charged each state and territory
with developing a CWCS. Over the past three years, the
Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks
(MDWFP) has coordinated this effort on behalf of the state of
Mississippi to meet congressional requirements and to
provide a "conservation blueprint" for agencies, organizations,
industries, private landowners and academics across the state to advance sound management of all of our
fish and wildlife resources in the future. The overarching goal of this planning effort is to provide a
guide to effective and efficient long-term conservation of Mississippi's biological diversity.
This document represents the summary of a conservation planning effort that officially began in
response to the congressional mandate, but which actually builds upon many years of research and data
accumulated by the MDWFP staff through the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (MMNS) and
many other organizations, agencies and individuals. To meet our overarching goal and to fulfill
congressional requirements, we enlisted the help of several individuals, organizations, agencies and
academia. Two CWCS Coordinators, Charles Knight and Elizabeth Barber, organized all aspects of the
development of this strategy in conjunction with a Technical Committee composed of MDWFP